Wildfire burning in Northern California threatens more than 2,000 homes

Officials say more than 2,000 homes are threatened and huge swaths of timberland have been destroyed by an out-of-control wildfire in Northern California.

State fire officials say the blaze east of Sacramento was threatening 2,003 single residences and about 1,500 other structures Wednesday night.

It has now burned nearly 44 square miles of trees and brush. Some 2,500 firefighters have it 5 percent contained.

U.S. Forest Service Supervisor for the Eldorado National Forest Laurence Crabtree tells the Sacramento Bee that the blaze has brought significant losses of public timberland, private timberland and watershed territory.

Most of the threatened homes were in Pollock Pines, 60 miles east of Sacramento.

Hundreds of them are under evacuation orders, but it wasn’t immediately clear exactly how many.